1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to disc loading apparatuses. More specifically, the present invention relates to a disc loading apparatus which conveys and loads a disc-shaped recording medium which is inserted through a disc insertion slot.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disc loading apparatuses which convey and load a disc-shaped recording medium, such as an optical disc, inserted through a disc insertion slot are known in the art. In these disc loading apparatuses, information signals are recorded on or played back from the loaded disc-shaped recording medium.
There are mainly two kinds of loading methods used in the disc loading apparatuses: a so-called tray method in which the disc-shaped recording medium is placed on a disc tray and is loaded by moving the disc tray, and a so-called slot-in method in which the disc-shaped recording medium is loaded by directly inserting it through the disc insertion slot.
In disc loading apparatuses using the slot-in method, the disc-shaped recording medium is conveyed, for example, while the peripheral surface of the disc-shaped recording medium is being pushed from opposite directions by a pair of rollers which face each other across the disc-shaped recording medium.
In the above-described disc loading apparatuses using the slot-in method, the disc-shaped recording medium is not conveyed to a predetermined position by moving the disc tray as in the tray method, but is conveyed by using feed rollers. Accordingly, in order to accurately convey the disc-shaped recording medium to a predetermined position, the position of the disc-shaped recording medium in the conveying direction must be detected while it is being conveyed.
On the other hand, the disc loading apparatuses may also be used as a so-called disc changer which includes a storage unit for storing a plurality of disc-shaped recording media and which can record and/or play back information signals to/from a desired disc-shaped recording medium from among the stored disc-shaped recording media. In such a case, the disc-shaped recording media must be conveyed between the disc insertion slot, a recording/playback unit, and the storage unit, and a long conveying path must be provided for the disc-shaped recording media.